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I blew out a huge breath and just decided to go for it. “Okay, you want the truth, so the truth it is. My relationship with Isobel is changing into something more, something bigger, and it’s not just Isobel. It’s Romero as well and a young man named Finn. You might have met him at Ariel’s wedding, or you might not have, but he was there all the same. What we’re building is important and hopefully long lasting. I know you never got to experience a life with a real coven because you spent your life on the run with your mother, but you’ve since witnessed how Ariel’s coven works.
“There might be a lot of them, but there’s no denying that they are one big, happy family. Yes, we’re a part of that family, and it’s fucking awesome to be a member of the Alexander family, but I want more for me, and I sure as hell want more for you. Watching them find their happily ever after has made me want to go after my own. I need you—”
“Are you going to get rid of me? Maybe send me back to Raven’s?”
He cut me off, and I snapped my mouth shut at the rare show of vulnerability I heard in his voice. He was always so mature that I sometimes forgot how young he was. And the kid had really been through a lot in his short life, and none of it was good.
He broke my fucking heart.
I hit the brakes and swerved the Rover over to the side of the road. I put the SUV in park and noticed my hands were shaking.
Man, my life had turned into an emotional roller coaster now that I had all these people in it to care about.
Baxter was looking out the passenger window, and there were tears trailing down his cheeks.
“Look at me,” I commanded in a gentle but firm voice.
His head slowly turned in my direction. The naked pain and raw vulnerability in his eyes made me want to hurt someone.
My voice came out raw and thick. “Don’t say that shit to me. Get it out of your head right now. You might not be mine by blood, but you’re my son. I thought you knew that, but perhaps I haven’t been doing my job correctly if you think I’d ever send you away. And, honestly boy, how you could even think Isobel would ever allow you to be sent away is beyond me. That woman would murder my ass before she hunted you down.”
He laughed shakily and wiped away his tears. “What if this Finn guy doesn’t like me?”
I would beat the fuck out of Finn every single day for the rest of his miserable life if he didn’t like my boy, but I didn’t tell Baxter that. I didn’t want to frighten him.
“It’s sickening, and you’re going to witness it for yourself, but Finn is borderline obsessed with our Isobel. There’s no way in hell he’s even going to look wrong in your direction because I’m sure he knows how much she cares about you. He lives with Romero now, so even ifyoudon’t likehim,I’m pretty sure we’re stuck with him. You have nothing to worry about though, because if he’s a dick, I’ll show you how to kick his ass.”
He laughed. The tears were finally gone, and he looked a lot lighter.
I put the Rover in drive, and we were off again. The kid ran his mouth the rest of the drive.
He talked about how obsessed with Ariel Trenton and Simon were. He told me he thought she might be becoming just as obsessed with them right back, and he wanted me to tell her to back off of them because she already took up too much of their time as it was.
He also had befriended Brighton Alexander, and I couldn’t be happier for both boys. They needed friends and normalcy in their fucked up lives.
By the time I pulled up to Romero’s cottage, I was almost hoping he’d go back to being quiet. The kid really could talk your ear off.
I didn’t bother knocking on the front door and just walked right on in. He’d get pissy if I knocked because he wanted me to treat his home as if it were my own.
Like we were a real family.
Like we were already a real coven.
Like how he’d been treating me from the very start.
Like how Isobel had been trying to treat me until I’d shut her down hard and forced her to take a step back. Because she was Isobel, she’d only taken half a step back, but I’d forced it on her.
Now I was more than prepared to drag her ass right back to me, and I’d chain her to my body if I had to.
Her chain would be right next to Romero’s, because fuck if I was going to let him get away from me either.
I rolled my eyes when I realized the noises in the house came from the kitchen. Yeah, we were here for dinner, but every time I came over here, I found the man in the kitchen. I didn’t think the man even used any other rooms except the bathroom and his bedroom.
The table in the dining room caught my attention. Hmm… that was certainly new. Romero really was taking this family dinner shit seriously if he went out and bought a table for it.
He’d been a demanding fool over the phone earlier, and I wasn’t used to that from him. He never got pushy with me, but ever since Finn showed up in our lives, he’s been determined to take everything to the next level, and he wasn’t going to take no sitting down.
He wasn’t going to take noat all.
